


Unnatural Causes

by MarineHaddock



Category: Kamen Rider Kuuga
Genre: College, Friendship, Mystery, Old Series Callbacks, Pre-Canon, Queer Character, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-10
Updated: 2020-03-02
Packaged: 2021-02-12 21:56:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21483475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarineHaddock/pseuds/MarineHaddock
Summary: Tsubaki and Ichijou met in university.  Gays just naturally flock together after all.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9
Collections: Another Toku Holiday Special (2019)





	1. Silence in the Library

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Revieloutionne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Revieloutionne/gifts).

> Thank you for requesting this I love talking about Tsubaki and Ichijou early years and didn't consider putting this to a fic until I got this prompt.
> 
> I'm sorry that this isn't the full fic, I plan to keep updating, so I hope you'll enjoy.

Tsubaki spent a lot of time in the university's library. It was the most convenient place for studying rather than trying to concentrate in a busy home or common area. He would come in straight after class or a lecture or even on his days off, which maybe made him out as a better student than he really cared to be, but sometimes in life, you had to sacrifice your reputation to yourself.

The thing in a university library, however, was that no matter how big the university was they seemed to buy the minimum number of tables for their library. The tables themselves had many chairs, but ultimately you weren't going to get one to yourself. He could have always gone outside the library to study but then it wasn't studying in a library. Also being outside the library allowed people to be louder than allowed him to concentrate.

The way to deal with such a dilemma was to find the perfect person to sit with while you worked, and hope that they were at a good table for your interests. Something close to the books relevant to your subject preferably. If he could, he'd avoid a table with a group of people who were already acquainted since he'd rather keep introductions to parties than in the library. 

On his first day there, Tsubaki had taken a gamble on the table beside the anatomy books, which just so happened to have only one person sitting at it. In a way, it felt like the best luck life had ever thrown at him. A quiet young man on his own, at the table he wanted, by the books he needed, and the undeniable fact that he was one of the most handsome men he'd come face to face with since entering university. He'd cleared his throat for his attention and asked to sit with him, and the young man had nodded as he quickly moved his stuff closer in so that Tsubaki would have space to work. He'd thanked him and put his bag down on the chair opposite him, before shuffling behind the young man's seat to grab some books he needed. As he did, he glanced over him and down at his textbooks, all with a neat name label over the protective covers.

Ichijou Kaoru.

He'd remember that.

He'd also have to remember he should probably get some labels for his own books. Given the amount they cost, he probably should have been putting his name and address in them. He took the books back to his side of the table and set them down, before getting his own textbooks out his bag and a pen. He didn't have labels at the minute so he'd have to settle for writing on the inside of the cover. 

Tsubaki Shuichi. 

His address neatly under it. 

Not as nice as having labels but if it saved him from losing a couple of very expensive textbooks. He got his notebooks out and the pair of them studied in silence. Just complete silence, hour after hour. Both of them stayed till closing, not once talking, but Tsubaki wishing every second that they were. When the librarian came to tell them to leave, Ichijou was faster at getting his things into his bag and was out the door before Tsubaki could ever hope to have his away.

He didn't want him to go.

He pushed the rest in haphazardly, potentially sneaking a couple that weren't his, and ran out after him, not even closing the bag properly. He looked around outside the door, and just caught glimpse of Ichijou walking out the door. Not even a look back at the man he'd spent the entire afternoon with.  
He wished then that he'd gotten the chance to ask him, if not for a way to contact him, that he could sit with him again tomorrow.

Tsubaki headed home, dejected, cursing himself for the hours of missed opportunities. A chance to have given his name, to have actually asked Ichijou his instead of just stealing the knowledge from a textbook, all the things he wrote wrong and how he could have asked to borrow the correction tape. To borrow a highlighter even. Anything to start a conversation. To introduce himself. To give a preface to wanting to sit with him and maybe get to know him. 

Suddenly he felt like a creep for having learned his name. It was weird when there was every chance they would never interact again. He sighed as he got in the door. Well, there had to be other cute guys in university right? He couldn't treat this as his one and only chance.

The next day, he went to the library, and sure enough, Ichijou was nowhere to be found. Tsubaki couldn't deny his disappointment. Maybe he'd been weirded out by having to sit beside someone who didn't talk to him for hours and was going to avoid the library for the rest of the year. Maybe he'd avoid it for a bit then just quietly find a table away from Tsubaki in future. Or say the space was reserved for a friend. Well, live and learn. Don't let guys slip through your fingers by not talking to them like some creep. Somewhat on the bright side, the table he'd shared with Ichijou the previous day had a couple of cute girls sitting at it. Maybe it was still early enough in the year for them to be comfortable having another person in their conversations. He wasn't about to make the same mistake twice in two days.

So instead, he made the opposite mistake.

Turns out the girls hadn't been that interested in hearing about his field. He'd got a little carried away talking to them when they asked. Maybe dissections weren't a first meeting topic for... anyone. They'd left before he even had a hope of asking their names or numbers. They definitely seemed interested in never having to speak to him again, especially by how they were whispering on their way out the door. Tsubaki groaned going over his mistake on his way home. This was a bad week for him. Three chances in two days and he'd messed them all up. Least pretty girls weren't hard to come by, maybe he should have tried speaking to the ones in their course. There had been talk of a party that he'd already said he'd go to. If he started talking about these things to girls there they’d at least be somewhat interested. Or he'd have to buy a round of drinks as the talking shop toll. He’d be willing to take that chance. Even if he didn’t meet someone it would be a chance to make some friends and ones that would be in the same field in the future if he ever needed them.

He gave a general greeting on his way up the stairs and went straight to his room, dumped his bag on his desk and lay down. Connections were nice but he had wanted to at least get one date in university. Maybe a steady girlfriend for at least a few years. Or a boyfriend but that seemed a lot less likely. He’d had a few girlfriends in high school but, as high school relationships did, they only lasted a few months. 

As far as he knew there hadn’t been any other guys in school open to dating other guys, but maybe he wouldn’t have been that open to it either at the time. He knew but it was a different thing when he was a teen. After he’d got out of high school he’d been able to get a bit more exposed to the community but he still had not had an actual relationship with a guy. In school it was easier, people were more open to trying things and making mistakes and dating for 9 months was treated as if they’d been together for an eternity. Outside of that, the world felt full of expectations, like if he did anything he wouldn’t have the ability to test the waters before facing his parents. Maybe he’d still get a girlfriend though. Then he wouldn’t have to deal with parents over it. He definitely wasn’t against having a cute girl in his life.

Though she would have to be very understanding about the necessity of bone structure conversations.

Well, his girls today were long out of the question. However, his mind rolled back to Ichijou. Maybe if he’d talked to him he’d know if he was interested in hearing about bone structure or anatomy or dissections or anything else. He tried to push it from his mind. That one was already a total loss. It was also unlikely Ichijou was interested in having a boyfriend. He probably had a girlfriend even. He was definitely the type that wouldn’t struggle for a girl's attention. Lucky for some. Not like he could pick up his looks or anything.

Still, even with no chance, he wanted to meet him again. Even if there was no hope for filling that relationship quota, something in him wanted to still be his friend.

He rolled himself back out of bed. Moping wasn't his preferred past time and that seemed to be all he was doing by lying there. If he isn't going to sleep he might as well study. He put his textbooks out on his desk. Couple of anatomy ones. Couple of general criminal studies. Book of interesting autopsies just for kicks. He picked up his "at home" notebook for chicken-scratch notes that would be tidied into his proper study notebook later.

When he opened it, he found a pack of clear plastic dust jackets. He'd forgotten he'd asked his dad to pick some up for him since they were sold out at the university. They were a good size luckily, mostly fitting his books, only a couple tight or loose.

He used some masking tape to create a label and wrote his name on that.

Maybe someone would read it over his shoulder.


	2. Examiner of the Devil

"Tsubaki..." He heard a quiet whisper over his shoulder, reading the label from one of the textbooks by him. It had been his day off, but he'd come in to study regardless, and amazingly the action had brought someone to read his name like they had been searching for the information. Or maybe they wanted his attention, but it wasn't the voice of anyone he recognised. He turned around to look at them.

And it was Ichijou. He looked a little surprised like he hadn't expected Tsubaki to hear him. Maybe he hadn't even realised he was speaking aloud. They stared at each other in silence for a second, words stuck in Tsubaki's throat. Well, he wasn't the only one reading labels on books to learn someone's name, so it seemed they had that in common.  
"You're-"  
"Can I sit with you?" Ichijou spoke at the same time as him, still fairly quiet as to not disturb the other people in the library. Tsubaki could feel the lump in his throat. In what universe was he being given another chance to meet a guy like Ichijou. Being given the chance to right a wrong so easily.  
"Yeah, of course," he pulled his stuff towards him making sure Ichijou would have enough space on the far side of the table for all his stuff.

But, seemingly oblivious to what Tsubaki was doing, Ichijou didn't sit on the far side of the table. Instead, he took the seat beside him and took out only his notebook, a pencil case, and one textbook. Tsubaki stared at him for a moment, gobsmacked that Ichijou would choose to sit beside him when it was definitely more convenient to sit on the other side, where he wouldn't have to limit himself to a single textbook. Ichijou started writing something down but Tsubaki was still struggling to take his eyes off of him. He really didn't want to stare and be rude, but it was just hard to believe. After such a string of bad luck, Ichijou chose to sit with him like it was barely anything. He cleared his throat and looked back down at his own textbook. He had to focus on this. He started scribbling some notes. Or did he? Did he have to worry about studying right now? He'd been given a second chance to meet Ichijou, to do this properly, surely he wasn't about to waste it making the exact same mistakes. But could he really interrupt Ichijou like this? If he'd come to the library to study like this, sat with someone who was completely silent last time, maybe he wasn't wanting to talk. Maybe, if he spoke now, Ichijou would avoid him in future.

He flipped through his notebook to a blank piece of paper and ripped it out.  
'I'm Tsubaki Shuichi. What's your name?' He wrote on it and folded it in half before sliding it within Ichijou's elbow room. He didn't quite want to let on that he was in the habit of learning people's names from their textbooks as well. That could be his secret for now and maybe somewhere down the line, he'd get drunk and tell Ichijou the truth of how desperate he'd been to know him. Ichijou stopped writing and looked at the paper then at Tsubaki. He smiled. Just the small smile that came with a silent laugh. Tsubaki gestured at the paper with a nod, trying to tell him to read it. Ichijou picked it up and opened it. He wrote something before sliding it back to him.  
"Ichijou Kaoru. Are you passing notes like a kid for a reason?"  
Well, now he felt a bit silly.

"I thought maybe you were a 'no talking in the library type'," Tsubaki whispered, scrunching up the note and putting it into his jacket pocket. Ichijou gave a quiet chuckle.  
"I don't mind talking a bit, long as I get my work done." Tsubaki looked over at Ichijou's textbook without any subtlety.  
"I'm studying to be a police officer," Ichijou filled him in before he had to put two and two together.  
"Ah, I'm wanting to do medical examinations, maybe we'll be working together in the future," He'd decided now that he liked Ichijou's smile, one he could get used to seeing, the kind that helped put him at ease. "If you'd like I could teach you some things-"  
"Do you have a highlighter?"  
Okay, well that was that shot down. He grabbed the highlighter out his pencil case and handed it over, watching as Ichijou used a ruler to neatly underline his notes.

"I didn't know the cops studied here though."  
"We're allowed to come to this library for studying. I prefer coming here."  
"More of a student vibe than the public library? Though you don't seem like the type to be living up the student life." He gave him a quick look over to emphasise his point. The neatly pressed shirt, the conventional tie, the dress trousers; not really the comfortable studying attire or the laid back student vibe. Almost made him feel self-conscious about his own choice of outfit, but he looked more in line with the other people there. Ichijou just shrugged.  
"Maybe it's a fated meeting," Tsubaki tried to joke, resting his elbows on the table with a grin. Ichijou wasn't playing into it. He just kept focusing on his notes, but it didn't seem like he was annoyed by the comment. Probably understood it was a joke, and if he wasn't backing off now, maybe this friendship had a chance.

Tsubaki followed his lead, going back to studying silently from his book for a bit. He took all the notes he could, but his mind was quick to wander, getting bothered by the silence between them. He shuffled through topics to bring up. Things he wanted to know, general small talk, to point out a particularly interesting part of his studies though that one wasn't usually well-received.  
"Do you have a girlfriend?" Maybe, it was best to start with that thing that was sticking out in his mind most.  
"Yes," Of course he did. It was a stupid question. There was no way around that. Handsome guys always had girlfriends, no matter how much they tucked in their shirt to visit the college library. Although, it was the start of the year, it was impressive he'd got one this quick. Unless they hadn't met at the police school, maybe it was some high school romance that had carried on. Something clicked in his brain then.  
"Your girlfriend goes here, doesn't she?"  
"Huh?"  
"That's why you come here to study."  
"If she did, wouldn't I be studying with her?" Tsubaki's confidence faltered. Right. Well, that would be a small oversight in his deduction. He wasn't going to be uncovering any deep secrets as to why Ichijou came here just yet then.

"Then how did you two meet?"  
"She asked me out last week."  
"That's how you met?"  
"She sits a few rows behind me, we hadn't really spoken before that."  
"And you said yes?" Ichijou paused for a minute, seeming a bit awkward. It's not like it's that strange to go out on some dates with someone you don't know to get to know them, but Ichijou seemed a bit put off thinking about it. Maybe he was considering if he'd been too fast to call her his girlfriend. The possibility he was more invested in her than she was in him.  
"I didn't at first, but when I mentioned it at home I got told off. My mum told me to entertain her for a bit."  
"So, did you like her after the first date?" Ichijou paused again.  
"It's complicated." Tsubaki leaned back in his seat. Okay, he definitely wasn't that into her. He hadn't really planned on getting into the more complicated stuff in Ichijou's life already. He'd kind of been hoping to steal some advice for getting a girlfriend himself but... well, Ichijou did a great job of making relationships sound easy to get into and complicated to actually have. Tsubaki took a quick note in his notebook, reminding himself that Ichijou was probably not the best person to talk to about relationships and highlighted it to stand out among the other notes. Probably be a bit weird if halfway through an autopsy his next step was to not ask Ichijou for relationship advice.

Now it felt like he was back at square one, albeit a more awkward version of square one, where he could either push for more information on Ichijou's "complicated" love life, or try and casually switch topics. One risked prying too deep, the other meant thinking of a change of subject.  
"Do you have a girlfriend?" Ichijou spoke before he had to think of one.  
"No, not at the minute," Tsubaki gave a nervous laugh. "I'm still working on it. It's only the start of the year, so I figure I have some time."  
Ichijou nodded as if he understood and wrote some more notes from his book. Or Tsubaki would assume that's what he was doing, he didn't really want to consider Ichijou taking notes on his lack of love life.  
"Maybe we should trade, any chance your girlfriend is interested in autopsies?"  
"I don't think so."  
"Well, you never know, there's a lot of interesting stuff you can get into and with how closely it links into detective work, she'll probably be seeing a lot of us. Investigating cases probably sparks a lot of interest in what we can learn from bodies. I have some books at home and one of the cases they discussed was this old case where they found a bus full of corpses. Everyone on board had just suddenly dropped dead, no clear signs of struggle or any wounds at all. The police were pretty confused by it, so they brought in a load of them for autopsies." He kept going describing the case. It wasn't even the most interesting case in the book but he'd been reading it the night before and it all just seemed to come spilling out of his mouth the second he got started without him even realising what he was doing. He was rambling about something people didn't care about again. It wasn't until he was near the end that he realised.  
"Some people believed that a monster did it..." He trailed off as his confidence also did. Ichijou probably didn't want to hear about some silly old case. Yet when he looked, Ichijou was staring at him intently. A look of complete wonder.  
"We were learning about a similar case."

They spent the rest of the afternoon talking about old cases, occasionally taking notes from what the other said. Both full of knowledge on strange cases from the 70s and 80s. Apparently, Ichijou's lecturers felt it was important for the students to know about, still having hard-set beliefs that similar cases could come up again in future. Tsubaki had just been looking into them as they came up in cases of interesting autopsies and hadn't really thought about how they strung together before. Some secret that the police had never uncovered the truth of, of how far it really went. It was fascinating.

He caught the time out the corner of his eye. Shoot, was it that late already. Looking around the library, sure enough, most people had already cleared out. Well, hopefully that was time-based and they hadn't been talking too much for people. The librarian looked as though they were watching the seconds tick by just to reach the perfect time to kick the pair of them out.  
"Ichijou, we better go, it's getting late," Ichijou looked up at the clock and seemed just as shocked as Tsubaki had been. They quickly put their things away. Tsubaki threw his bag over his shoulder and grabbed Ichijou's hand, part pulling him out the door of the library with the speed he was going. They stopped at the stairs outside the library.

He'd grabbed Ichijou's hand.

He hadn't let go yet.

He would let go now.

He let go of Ichijou's hand and swallowed the sudden lump in his throat. Right. Surely, Ichijou hadn't noticed that. Nothing strange about it at all, it probably didn't even register in his mind. Just don't bring it up, move right on past it.  
"Anyway, you should give me your phone number, then we can meet up to study more together. I could get some more information on those cases I mentioned and can show you next time." Ichijou had a girlfriend.  
"Sure, hold on let me write it down," Ichijou grabbed a piece of paper and pen out his bag. Yep, definitely hadn't noticed the hand holding thing, he was in the clear. He took the number off him and quickly shoved it in his pocket. It took him another minute to realise he should probably give his to Ichijou too.  
"My family might pick up, but don't worry about it just tell them you're a friend from college and they probably will just hand me the phone," Ichijou put the number in his shirt pocket. "So, what way do you take home?"  
"I'm heading for the train station."  
"That's on my way, I'll walk with you."

Ichijou didn't protest.


	3. Chapter 3

Tsubaki took a deep breath outside the door and walked on in, trying his best to give an air of casual confidence. Like he definitely believed it was where he was supposed to be and there was nothing strange about it at all. He scoured the room for the one he was searching for until he saw him. Ah, of course, Ichijou would be the type that loves to sit near the front of the class. The perfect place for the lecturer to notice that he was not, in fact, a student of the class.

Tsubaki took confident strides over, squeezing past a few of the students with a mumbled apology on his way to take his place beside Ichijou. There was still a few rows in front of them so he might still go unnoticed. Ichijou didn't look up at him. The seminar hadn't even started and he was already writing furiously. Not really a shock, but Tsubaki could be a little offended that his presence hadn't been enough.

His plans would be kind of scuppered if he got kicked out straight away though so he followed Ichijou's lead. He took out his notebook and pen to sit open in front of him. Maybe he'd find something worth taking note of for his own work.

Even with all his stuff set out by him, and him well settled, Ichijou hadn't once looked up. Tsubaki was starting to consider the possibility Ichijou never noticed who was sitting by him when he was working. A proper hard worker.

Sadly, that wouldn't work for him.

"Ichijou," Tsubaki gently placed his hand on Ichijou's shoulder making him jump and finally look at him. Ichijou sighed rather dramatically at him.  
"Tsubaki."  
"Miss me?" Tsubaki smiled at him, trying to be a bit playful about things to soften him up.  
"What are you doing here?"  
"Skipping class, I thought you'd appreciate some company."  
"Not particularly, I have to concentrate."  
"It's okay, I can be quiet for most of it. It'll be interesting to look at what the real cops get to know. But class hasn't started yet, so."

Ichijou put his pen down and looked at him, giving in to the concept of having a break. Tsubaki took it as a prompt for him to continue with what he had to say.  
"I found something interesting."  
"What kind of interesting?"  
"Like a strange case! I was checking out some old papers at the library to see if there was anything cool I could look into," Ichijou gave him a look. "You're not the only one who is taking their classes seriously. This is the kind of thing that got me into this, I like looking at old cases, sue me. The librarian sees me coming and has the films out ready for me to go. Whatever, that's not relevant. Anyway, I was looking through news articles from the seventies by chance and came across one about some strange disease that one day hit Kanto and started to rapidly spread across the nation. It was saying the incubation on it was an hour and people were lying suffering in the streets!"  
"Tsubaki, not to ruin your enthusiasm, but what's that important for?"

Tsubaki took a moment. In all honesty, he'd gotten somewhat ahead of himself in his research. The idea of the disease, rapid and potentially deadly, had hit the part of his brain that couldn't resist excitement at such things. After having such a chat with Ichijou, it had seemed natural to dive in and tell him about it.  
"Look I'll take you across after class and show you some of the articles, you'll understand when you see them!"

Ichijou seemed to smile ever so slightly, as if he were amused by the entire thing rather than just annoyed at Tsubaki for wasting his time. Then again, in a class like this, it didn't seem like anyone was making much of an attempt to get friendly with Ichijou. Maybe he was truly lonely and just appreciative of the company Tsubaki provided him. He could see a couple of girls chatting and glancing over at them, but not approaching. It stirred something in his mind. He looked around quickly to check the rows behind him, checked the clock on the wall.

Class was about to start and there was no girl, neither by Ichijou's side nor sitting a couple of rows back.

Tsubaki clicked his tongue. Ichijou had gone back to work.  
"So, how's the girlfriend thing going?"  
"We broke up," Ichijou said it so matter of factly, without any care, it may as well have been something he had read in the newspaper. Detached from him, not requiring him to offer any of his own heart. "She was a lot more into me than I was her, she recognised that and called it off."

Tsubaki could have smacked him upside the head. Regular old heartless heartbreaker, Ichijou Kaoru. First him, now that poor girl who'd actually managed to get the coveted title of girlfriend. Here he'd hoped those girls were showing interest but they were probably just talking about what an uncaring boyfriend Ichijou was. For all he knew, one of them could have been that girlfriend. Now he was going to be wrapped up in the infamy of bad boyfriend-hood simply for being friends with Ichijou even though he didn't go here. One way or another it would surely get around to his own circles and he could await the day he would live in infamy. Woe is all that can come from taking interest in a man such as Ichijou. 

"You didn't even try to fix it then huh? Even after your family trying to get you to take dating seriously."  
"My mother understands why." Tsubaki wondered if understanding was the same as approving. There were many things his own mother probably understood of him without approving of. Though he hadn't met Mrs Ichijou, maybe she was just wanting him to try and then go back to his single life, knowing he'd at least tried it once.

The lecturer had taken his place at the front and called their attention forward. It was probably for the best instead of continuing along this line of conversation. If they kept going, he wondered if he'd of tried offering himself in her place. Though Ichijou didn't quite strike him as a man who's relationship failed due purely to sexuality. 

He tried to scribble down some notes on what the lecturer was saying but when he looked them over it turned out he'd just noted his own analysis of Ichijou.

* * *

Tsubaki tried asking him some questions about the lecture on the way to the library. He'd not understood quite as much as he'd hoped and there was a lot more to the law than what cadavers had to tell.

"There's more to law than homicide."  
"But don't most detectives want to work on homicides?" Ichijou gave him a strange look at the suggestion.  
"Most people are meant to want to uphold the law and peace."  
"By stopping killers." Tsubaki was winding him up a bit, trying to see what would get a rise out of him, but Ichijou wasn't so easily baited.  
"Not everyone wants to be spending their days looking at dead bodies."  
"Obviously. If they did they'd be in my class instead of general cop stuff."

He could see that little smile in the corner of Ichijou's lips again.

The librarian greeted them and got them the relevant small box of film on request, reminding them of the charge for if they were wanting to print off any copies. Tsubaki took it from her with a "thank you" and directed Ichijou over to the machine. They were quiet around this time, no one really around to intrude on their work here or to get at them.

Tsubaki loaded the film onto the machine and locked it in, fast-forwarding through it until the relevant article appeared on the screen.

"This isn't about a disease," Ichijou was quick to jump in. Least he was proving he'd paid attention to what Tsubaki had been telling him.  
"Yeah, but I feel it's an interesting thing to bring up," He swivelled the image around and stood for a minute awkwardly trying to balance the zoom and focus on the article.

Five years into a life sentence, a prisoner, charged with robbery and murder, went missing from within his cell. The cell had a solid metal door and guards could only see in through a small window, which could be closed over with a shutter. The guard had been by to waken him at 6 am, however, the prisoner started kicking off and the guard left him in his cell. When they later checked back, a tunnel had been made in the floor of the cell, wide enough for the prisoner to have escaped through. Guards report that there had been no hole there while checking in that morning and it would have been impossible to conceal in the time it took to dig. No trace of tools could be found to assist in the digging.

"So?" Ichijou asked him after reading the article.  
"They never found him. Not a trace. The tunnel led to no clues, and he was never arrested. Not even a sighting."

Ichijou was giving him a look that made it clear he wasn't quite following what this was.  
"You'll understand in a bit hold on."

He removed the film and replaced it with another one from a few days later.

Two teens, Hiroshi and Kimiko, reported missing. The kids had been playing tennis with some older friends. The pair ran off looking for a missing tennis ball but took so long and their friends went looking. Their friends claimed to have seen the pair knocked out and being loaded into the back of a lorry. Upon trying to trace it, they lost sight of the lorry.

There was a brief description of the supposed lorry, some words from worried family, and a picture of the pair in hopes people could find them.

"You think there's a link between these two cases? Like this prisoner broke out and decided to add kidnapping to his crimes?" Ichijou seemed completely lost and Tsubaki was starting to hate the tediousness of working through these articles.  
"These guys were found alive, but they're relevant to what I was actually talking about."

He loaded the next article, this one got significantly more space on the page than the previous two.

A group of children had been lured away from the city in a pied piper like fashion, following a supposed "festival". Some of the kids ran back, reporting that they'd been attacked by strange men. Adults went along to investigate and found a group loading children into a lorry (described in a way that made it suspiciously similar to the one from the previous case). Some of the children were rescued but were unconscious and seriously ill. The attending doctor at the hospital reported they have been given a strong poison that they have never previously encountered.

The seventies felt like a long time back reading it. Parents weren't as prone to letting their kids follow strange festivals on their own now. The kids were all reported to be in grade school.

Ichijou stared at the article, now starting to piece together a bit more of the story Tsubaki saw. Tsubaki gave him a minute before deciding the silence was his cue to continue his presentation.

The next article was a small one, but reported that the ward where the affected children were had been broken into during the night. An agent had been brought in to protect the children so the attackers hadn't got far. The article also mentioned a breakthrough that the poison had come from a poisonous mushroom that hadn't been encountered before, with an appeal to document any strange mushrooms found in the area that could aid in helping the children.

"So this is the start of the pandemic?" Tsubaki nodded. "Potentially people got careless while looking for these mushrooms?"  
"That might of played a part, but obviously that's not all of it."  
"If it was, it wouldn't be a pandemic."

The next article was a small one, stating that Hiroshi and Kimiko had been found safe and sound, and had been returned safely to their families.

Tsubaki scrolled back through a bit, getting back to the major article.

A breakthrough for the children affected by the poison. An anonymous man had come forward with information. They had successfully engineered an antidote that had cured one of the children but would require time to reproduce for the others.

The accompanying picture showed the cured boy with what they would assume were his family.

Ichijou was giving the article a strange look, which had been just what Tsubaki was hoping for.

"It doesn't add up, right?"  
"Why does some anonymous man have the information needed for developing the antidote? Why wouldn't they have made more?" Tsubaki smiled, feeling a strange joy in Ichijou asking him so many questions.  
"They wouldn't make more if it was just a test, but the guy is definitely suspicious. I had to do some extra reading, but the antidote was based on using some strange chlorophyll. Mushrooms don't have any, their fungi not plants. So how did this guy know that this chlorophyll would undo the effects of that mushrooms poison?"

Ichijou seemed to think it over for a minute, most likely trying to find any rational explanation that wouldn't have already crossed Tsubaki's own mind.  
"What about the pandemic part of it?"

He pulled up the next article, a proper front page emergency. Hiroshi and Kimiko had collapsed while out with their friends again. During the examination, their friends also collapsed, followed shortly by the attending doctor and nurse. Within the hour, it had spread to everyone in the hospital. People had fled the hospital, hearing about the highly contagious disease and hoping to escape it but all collapsed within the hour. Everyone who so much as made passing contact with them caught it and everyone who made passing contact with those people caught it. The entire of the Kanto district was affected before word could even get out. The disease was rapidly spreading nationwide. Bodies lined the streets and there were no medical professionals left to help.

The doctor who had been working on the antidote for the poison had miraculously avoided contamination and developed the antidote. He recognised the victims as being infected with the same poison that had somehow mutated into a highly contagious disease. Luckily, the antidote still worked and was able to be administered to all affected before anyone was killed.

"Well, I can see why something like this caught your attention," It sounded like he was trying to make a joke but Ichijou looked concerned by the entire thing. "I don't get how it links back to the first case though."  
"It's a bit of a stretch, but with all these people going missing, he was the only one to never be recovered. It's possible it's a coincidence but it could be that he's somehow linked into this whole thing. Maybe he was some sort of patient zero in this."  
Ichijou mulled it over a bit.  
"It's certainly weird that it happened right before all this but I can't see any way a regular criminal could have caused all this just because he got out of jail."

Tsubaki took the reel out of the machine and shut it down. He'd have to consider printing out the articles another time for closer inspection but something made him feel anxious about doing so in front of Ichijou. Maybe the simple anxiety of being judged was finally catching up to him only after explaining all this.

"You might be right. I've been trying to look into the poison used though, just in case it ever comes up again. I found all the information on the antidote, but they never found the actual mushroom that caused it all or how it became so strong so quickly."  
"It just appeared and disappeared as quickly."  
"It's weird, though. I'll have to dig them out and show you some time but it feels like we get a lot of rare outbreaks of killer mushrooms that just sort of appear for less than a week and are then never heard of again. Always different spores. Sometimes people die, sometimes they don't. We never seem to get to the root of where these mushrooms come from or where they go to. I supposed doctors now just have shelves and shelves lined with 'in case of unknown mushroom problems'," He tried to make a joke at the end, feeling as though he were slipping into some dark territory that may not go down well so early into a friendship. Something in his gut told him that this was the time to move on from all of this.

"Let's hand these back in at the desk and go. There's a nice cafe nearby we can get something to eat at before you head home."


End file.
